NATO acts to break Karadzic's support network

SARAJEVO, Mar 15 (Reuters) NATO troops raided three locations in northwestern Bosnia today searching for information about indicted war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic and seeking to break his support network, the alliance said.

The search of Bosnian Serb Nemanja Vasic's home, firm and bar in the village of Strpci begun at 7 am local time 1130 hrs (IST) and was expected to last until afternoon, said NATO spokesman Derek Chappell.

''We have intelligence information that has led us to search his house and businesses. We believe that Mr Vasic is associated with Radovan Karadzic's support network,'' Chappell told Reuters by telephone.

''This is not an arrest operation. The purpose is to get information that would lead to further investigation,'' he added.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic along with his military commander Ratko Mladic tops the list of the remaining fugitives from Bosnia's 1992-95 war sought by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte called for renewed efforts to arrest the two men following the death in custody of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague on Saturday, which she described as ''a total defeat''.

Both are indicted of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month Sarajevo siege in which over 11,000 people had been killed. Karadzic's whereabouts are unknown and Mladic is believed to hide in Serbia.

Chappell said that NATO, supported by the European Union peacekeepers and local police during the operation, wanted to break the network of Karadzic's supporters' who provide logistics and channel money for the fugitive.

''Shutting down these support networks is a good way to prove a full cooperation of Bosnia with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia),'' he said.

Full cooperation with the tribunal is a key condition for the Balkan country's closer ties with NATO and the European Union.

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